About This Coffee
This Grade 1 Fully washed lot was produced by various smallholder farmers across Cajamarca working with Perunor, one of Peru’s most established specialty coffee exporters. PERUNOR has worked with more than 2,500 smallholder farming families across the country's key growing regions since 1998. This lot from one of Peru's most established specialty origins is certified Fairtrade and Organic, part of a broader portfolio of certifications PERUNOR holds across its supply chain in Amazonas, Pasco, Cajamarca, San Martín, Junín and Cusco.
PERUNOR supports producers in coffee communities to achieve better income and a stronger quality of life by providing technical assistance, training in processing and cupping and access to international markets that reward consistent, well-produced specialty lots. The Fairtrade certification reinforces this model, ensuring producers receive fair prices and community investment through premiums that can be directed toward farm improvements and family welfare.
Cultivation
Cajamarca sits in northern Peru at altitudes ranging from 1,300 to 2,000 meters above sea level, where fertile soils, consistent rainfall and cool mountain temperatures create ideal conditions for slow cherry development and dense, complex beans. This coffee is grown under forest shade in jungle-adjacent environments, a practice that supports biodiversity, soil conservation and bird habitat. The company's approach to cultivation avoids synthetic pesticides and chemical fertilizers, relying instead on methods derived from ecological processes.
Harvest & Post-Harvest
Cherry is selectively handpicked at peak ripeness. After picking, cherry is depulped on individual farms and fermented in tanks before being fully washed with clean water to remove remaining mucilage. Parchment is then laid to dry on patios, tarps or raised drying beds until optimal moisture levels are reached. Drying greenhouses and parabolic beds are becoming more common in the region, as well, as farmers pivot towards specialty markets. After drying, coffee is then sold in parchment to the cooperative.
Coffee in Peru
Peru holds exceptional promise as a producer of high-quality coffees. The country is the largest exporter of organic Arabica coffee globally. With extremely high altitudes and fertile soils, the country’s smallholder farmers also produce some stunning specialty coffees.
Though coffee arrived in Peru in the 1700s, very little coffee was exported until the late 1800s. Until that point, most coffee produced in Peru was consumed locally. When coffee leaf rust hit Indonesia in the late 1800s, a country central to European coffee imports at the time, Europeans began searching elsewhere for their fix. Peru was a perfect option.
Between the late 1800s and the first World War, European interests invested significant resources into coffee production in Peru. However, with the advent of the two World Wars, England and other European powers became weakened and took a less colonialist perspective. When the British and other European land owners left, their land was purchased by the government and redistributed to locals. The Peruvian government repurchased the 2 million hectares previously granted to England and distributed the lands to thousands of local farmers. Many of these farmers later grew coffee on the lands they received.
Today, Peruvian coffee growers are overwhelmingly small scale. Farmers in Peru usually process their coffee on their own farms. Most coffee is Fully washed. Cherry is usually pulped, fermented and dried in the sun on raised beds or drying sheds. Drying greenhouses and parabolic beds are becoming more common as farmers pivot towards specialty markets.
After drying, coffee will then be sold in parchment to the cooperative. Producers who are not members of a cooperative will usually sell to a middleman.
The remoteness of farms combined with their small size means that producers need either middlemen or cooperatives to help get their coffee to market. Cooperative membership protects farmers greatly from exploitation and can make a huge difference to income from coffee. Nonetheless, currently only around 15-25% of smallholder farmers have joined a coop group.